Biography


Alec Ness is a mastering engineer who's drawn to the weird and world-bending. Building on his own experience as an artist and lifelong dedication to music, he brings empathy and artistic curiosity to his collaborations behind the desk. 

From his state-of-the-art analogue studio in Minneapolis, Alec has worked closely with trailblazing artists including polymath Dua Saleh and alternative hip-hop duo Paris Texas. He is also noted for his work across diverse genres with Brittany Howard, Bonnie Prince Billy, The Hellp, Corbin, Poliça, serpentwithfeet, Jordan Rakei, Doechii, and Love Spells.

Alec's musical career began as a teenager, when his love of post-rock and shoegaze records fuelled his desire to learn guitar. Having been born with partially amputated fingers, Alec was directed by a music teacher to learn the drums instead, which led to years of playing in bands before discovering a love of electronic music by way of Burial and Björk.

After studying composition at the McNally Smith College of Music, in 2011, he qualified as an Ableton Certified Trainer – an expert in the production software. He spent most of the 2010s working as a producer and touring musician supporting artists like Dizzy Fae, Biig Piig, and Toro Y Moi, while also creating shape-shifting, synth-driven soundscapes as an artist himself.

In 2019, he took on the project that heralded his transition into mastering full-time: an album of remixes of Dua Saleh's 2019 LP Nūr, on which he also provided a remix. In mastering, he found a role that was a perfect fit. As an artist, Alec's approach to genre was omnivorous; as a mastering engineer, he found a new way to delightedly sink his teeth into projects across the spectrum of indie, hip-hop, ambient, house, rock, and more.

His journey into mastering was shepherded by mentors who emphasised the skill of sitting with the emotional resonance of projects. Like some of his favourite visual works of art, Sergei Parajanov's immersive 1969 masterpiece The Color of Pomegranates, or Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian's mirror mosaics, Alec is drawn to music that builds its own kaleidoscopic universe. Citing David Lynch as another key influence, he likes to work with what can't easily be understood or interpreted.

Though it's often seen as a very technical role, Alec's approach to mastering is about more than pressing the right buttons. In his studio, the question isn't just whether a track is loud or bright or sharp enough. It's: how can we bring this unique vision to life?